Seasonal Chef Instructor, Pastry (Sur La Table)

About the role

As a Seasonal Chef Instructor, Pastry at Sur La Table, you are the in-store expert and advocate for all things baking and pastry arts. You deliver exceptional service by sharing specialized knowledge in pastry techniques, baking fundamentals, and personalized instruction that supports all company initiatives.

Responsibilities

The Seasonal Chef Instructor, Pastry plays a key role in inspiring a love for baking while driving sales of bakeware, mixers, and decorating tools through hands-on pastry classes and engaging culinary instruction.

• Represent Sur La Table’s brand and culture by creating memorable, educational experiences that inspire repeat visits and customer loyalty.
• Deliver an exceptional in-store culinary experience focused on pastry and baking classes that reflects Sur La Table’s passion for food, teaching, and high standards.
• Communicate technical concepts and advanced pastry skills in a clear, encouraging, and approachable manner.
• Maintain expertise by staying current on products, actively engaging in available training, and independently seeking out additional resources.
• Drive sales by upholding kitchen standards, encouraging second class sign-ups through strong customer engagement, and promoting retail items used or featured in class.
• Deliver class revenue goals by ensuring high enrollment, positive reviews, and guest return rates.
• Assist in setting up and breakdown of classes including organizing mise en place, prepping ingredients, and cleaning workstations.
• Clean and sanitize dishes and equipment promptly to ensure smooth kitchen operations.
• Assist with restocking, organizing, and maintaining kitchen supplies and tools to support overall store readiness.
• Ensure compliance with food safety standards, local health codes, and sanitation regulations.
• Properly handle all tools, ingredients, and kitchen equipment to maintain a safe and efficient work environment.

Requirements

• Must be 21 years of age or older at the time of employment.
• A degree in culinary arts is preferred; however, candidates with extensive culinary experience and demonstrated technical proficiency will be considered in lieu of formal education.
• 1-2 years of kitchen operations experience.
• Valid Food Manager Certification.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Passion for community engagement and providing exceptional customer experiences.

Physical Requirements

The ability to:

• Communicate verbally and work cooperatively with associates and customers.
• Remain standing for up to 4 hours at a time.
• Move about the store directing class participants while selling to customers and retrieving merchandise from stockroom or sales floor.
• Accurately perceive and differentiate variations in intensity or quality of flavors or odors, or to identify specific tastes or scents using the tongue or nose.
• Grab, reach, push, pull, bend, stoop, kneel and crouch to demonstrate, retrieve and/or replenish merchandise and/or cooking equipment.
• Use hands to seize, hold, grasp, turn, or otherwise to chop, whisk, slice, stir, juice and/or demonstrate other techniques.
• Lift and/or move merchandise weighing up to 50 lbs.
• Ascend/descend ladders to retrieve and/or move merchandise.
• Operate a computer, POS system, keyboards, merchandise scanners and mouse to accomplish work.

Schedule

Available to work between 12 and 16 hours per week, with a flexible schedule, including nights, weekends, and holidays. Regular and predictable attendance with the flexibility to adjust class assignments based on demand.